


Promised Day

by Nemesissy



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Light Angst, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 09:52:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17526494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemesissy/pseuds/Nemesissy
Summary: Minato finds "home," just in time.





	Promised Day

**Author's Note:**

> Written after "dying" in a dream. It was such a strange sensation, and so difficult to describe, but something that can't help but linger in the mind. So, here we are!

A blue-haired boy pushed his way into the bright sunlight of a school rooftop with every ounce of determination he could muster, his body trembling with exhaustion.  
  
_This is what I can do._  
  
He steeled himself in the doorway before forcing himself to continue forward on the path he'd long ago decided upon.  
  
_This is what I promised them. My friends._  
  
On the edge between land and sky, Aigis awaited him, palm outstretched in welcome.  
  
_Almost...there._  
  
As he forced one foot before the other, Minato's heart flopped weakly in his chest, and a fresh wave of faintness overtook him. His lungs ached like they were missing something... _crucial. What is it?_ But any attempt to define what was absent danced away from his grasping mind, lost on the tip of his tongue.  
  
_I....can't feel my lips, or my fingertips..._.  
  
His body was a marionette, poorly piloted by sheer strength of will.  
  
_Master of Strings....ha...._  
  
He willed himself to raise his eyes from his idling feet, to greet Aigis with the gladness she deserved.  
  
Aigis strode closer, lips curved in a gentle smile, arms wide as she approached her dear friend. "So, we meet again." The wind gently carried her words to him, with the scent of every promised cherry blossom.  
  
_How is it that my body can feel so distant, while my mind feels things with such clarity? Each moment feels so crisp, but jarring, and the air....is sweet...._  
  
Minato stumbled with painful finality. The Master's strings snapped, trailing from useless hands.  
  
_No, wait! ....I need more--!_  
  
"Minato-san?!"  
  
He collapsed to the ground, only to be embraced by strong, warm arms.  
  
_...Home._  
_I'd been searching so long..._  
  
"Aigis....I...."  
  
He willed his knees to unbend, but they remained stubbornly bound to the rough concrete of the school rooftop. He ground them into the grit, searching for strength.  
  
_Up. Up. I promised._  
  
But he couldn't.  
  
_....I promised. But I did make it. I'm here. I'm here._  
  
Minato let himself be gathered into Aigis's compassion and adoration, carried bodily to rest on a small stone bench, her lap a pillow for his head. He found his view from the roof's edge split between the endless expanse of the Springtime he had saved and his friend's heartbreakingly human blue eyes.  
  
He allowed himself to be lulled by the gentle, seemingly eternal cadence of her voice, as she professed her newfound reason for existence. Her purpose, her devotion.  
  
"Because of you, I know why I must live. If I'm with you, I think I will have the strength to continue on, forever. That's the promise that I can make to you, in return for all that you have done."  
  
He smiled deliriously in response, but found something nagging, a rough edge in a corner of his dazed mind.  
  
Faintly, he thought, _I want her to strive for something outside of me. Something found in herself, because...because why?.. I hope...._  
  
Minato tried to speak, but could only open his mouth feebly, only to have even that small motion silenced by fingers gently pressed to his lips. Aigis' tender voice murmured, "You must be exhausted." She laid a hand soothingly on the crown of his head, fingers tangled in deep blue hair. "You can rest now. Don't worry. I will be here, to protect you, always."  
  
_Always..._  
  
_Can I....tell her_  
_..ask fate, what is the length of..._  
_forever?.._  
  
He closed his eyes, less as a conscious choice than as a relinquishment of the sunlight that had enveloped them both.  
  
_Letting go...of one embrace...to_  
_..fall into another..._  
  
_...fall where??.._  
  
Still, he could hear Aigis, now humming a tune that he couldn't quite place, despite a poignant feeling of familiarity.  
  
.... _home.._  
  
In the distance a door swung wide, and familiar laughter called his name, ringing like the opening of a gate to a treasured place he thought he'd lost.  
  
"Minato-kun!"  
  
_...Fondness....._  
  
Only laughter, as all other sensations faded.  
  
_._  
_. . I . ._  
_. . . . . . love . ._  
_. . ._  
_. I . ._  
_._  
  
_!!_  
  
_. . Her warmth...where is it?!_  
  
A moment of wordless panic filled an untethered emptiness, a feeling cried out of  
_If I'm this afraid, I should feel my heart beating faster I should I don't I should but I--_  
and then,  
  
_Ahhh_.  
  
Realization, as bright and dark as an eye, open in the night.  
  
_So, this is--!_  
  
_\- - - !_  
  
...  
  
.  
  
A hand fell peacefully open, releasing a cherry blossom into the air to drift slowly down, down,  
  
Down.


End file.
